Local government workers in Rivers State have pulled out of the planned nationwide protests, fearing it would probably be hijacked.
Addressing newsmen, the members of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Rivers State Chapter, thus dissociated themselves from the planned protests against hunger billed to commence on August 1, 2024, across the country.
There is a fierce battle by both political camps in Rivers State to win the love of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Each camp thus tried to profess support for the Tinubu administration, failing which the other camp would use it to blackmail them before Tinubu.
Thus, ALGON members comprising chairmen of caretaker committees in the 23 local government areas of the State (who were appointed by Gov Sim Fubara), said that they were totally against the planned protest because it was capable of being hijacked by hoodlums to loot and destroy valuable properties and cause break down of law and order.
Speaking on behalf of members of ALGON in the State, the Caretaker Committee Mayor of Port Harcourt City Local Government Council, Ichemati Ezebunwo, said that the State has been peaceful, adding that it was unnecessary to allow agents of destabilization to plunge the State into palpable instability, anarchy and chaos with needless protest and disorganized demonstrations.
Ezebunwo also reiterated the unalloyed support and commitment of the ALGON members to the implementation of the key objectives of Mr President’s policies and programmes as enunciated in the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Federal Government.
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He said, “Sequel to the Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting of June, 2024, where intense deliberations were held and resolutions reached on measures to adopt in improving the lives of our people at the grassroots, and the swift release of allocations due the local government councils, we, the members of ALGON, Rivers State Chapter, state that we thank Mr President for the timely and unhindered release of allocations for the various local government councils.”
ALGON said: “We state categorically that we are committed to cascading the key objectives of the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President in our various local government areas.
“We hereby call on the people to discountenance any planned protest as measures are being put in place to cushion the effects of the economic situation” in the country today.”
The State ALGON also expressed worries at the increasing involvement of police officers in the escalation of hostilities against members of the caretaker committees and peace-loving and law-abiding Rivers people by the immediate past chairmen of local government councils, and their violent and armed agents, whose intentions have been to cause anarchy and engineer a climate of lawlessness in the State.
